Imagine a pedestrian mall with upscale shopping and dining facilities adorning the center of the neighborhood, a widened Broadway with parking banished to the side streets and alleys. Picture abandoned lots and rundown houses swept away and replaced with parks and unique ''global village'' residential complexes scattered throughout the area.

Peng, a professor of architecture at Texas Tech University in the 1980s who served as director of the Institute for Urban Studies International, put his students to work on revamping the neighborhood in 1985. What they came up with has been described as both visionary and unrealistic.

''Dr. Peng was a theoretical and visionary planner,'' said Randy Henson, senior planner for the city of Lubbock. ''But he didn't always concern himself with how much something would cost.''

The major problem with what would become known as the Peng Plan, Henson said, was that it would have required a huge investment of public and private funds. The plan was formally adopted by the City Council but was never implemented because of its high cost.

In May 1986, the City Council balked at spending $6.85 million for just one phase of the plan additional parks.

Henson said he is too much of a ''stick-in-the-mud pragmatist'' and sees the Peng Plan as too grandiose for Lubbock. Peng was educated in China, Henson noted, where central government planning allowed for an architect to design an entire town and then have it built that way. But in a free enterprise system, everything depends on market forces to determine a project's viability, he added.

Still, grand renewal plans are possible if market conditions are right, Henson said. An example is the West End Market development in downtown Dallas, where a deteriorating business and manufacturing district was remodeled into a popular center for shopping and dining.

But even if the market here would support such development, such a project would still require hefty public investment. And that's not likely.

''Lubbock never created a pot of money to use for large-scale urban renewal projects,'' Henson said. ''We are stuck between a market that does not support a major renewal and property owners who are not keeping their property up.''

City Councilman Victor Hernandez, an Overton resident, said there are two competing visions for Overton's future. One vision is to reverse the decline and preserve most of the neighborhood's history. The other vision is a start-over-from-scratch approach.

''I think there has been a reluctance on the city to spend money on Overton because a lot of people would rather have it shrivel up and die so that a scrape and burn operation can begin and a totally new development can be put in,'' Hernandez said. ''I think Overton is worth saving, but it will take a concerted effort by the city.''

A typical block along Sixth Street, many houses with bars securing windows and doors.

Jim Watkins/Staff Photographer

Hernandez said he will push to have Overton maintain its designation as a ''targeted'' neighborhood next year so that it will continue to be eligible for federal funding through the community development block grant program. Any turnabout is contingent on local participation as well as federal participation, Hernandez said, and it will take many years to see substantial results.

''The Overton neighborhood didn't get to where it is at overnight, and I don't think anyone should expect it to rebound overnight,'' he said. ''But I think what has historically occurred is that Overton has been ignored, much to the detriment of the people in Overton and much to the chagrin of the city.''

Another major player in helping determine the future of Overton may be Texas Tech University. Bob Ewalt, vice president for student affairs, said that as the university grows, adjacent neighborhoods such as Overton come into question.

''Up until just a couple of years ago, the university was looking at the confines we've had for years,'' he said. ''As that becomes more occupied, it raises more questions.''

University planner Doug Mann said Tech already has enough land for facilities such as parking garages. The bigger concern with Overton is student safety and university image, he said.

''We want to create as safe a situation as possible for students (walking) from Overton to the Tech area,'' Mann said. ''There are certainly some blighted areas around Tech. We're thinking about our image what would be the safest area.''

But Ewalt said Overton also meets a need for the university.

''A lot of our students live there. It serves a purpose for them. There will always be a group of students who gravitate toward low-income areas.''

''The question is what is the mix that makes that possible: how many single-family dwellings, how many apartments? Then there are the significant number of students who are just looking for immediate access to campus.''

Overton also becomes an issue because of the impression it makes on prospective students and their parents, Ewalt said. Because of that, Tech needs to keeps its eye on the neighborhood, he said.

''Certainly we have people talk about those kind of things,'' he said. ''They look for other places to live. There are people who raise questions of safety.''

''The university continually has to consider the impact of that area.''

But if solving Overton's problems were as ''simple as a couple of can-do ideas, it would have been done a long time ago,'' Mann said.

Impacting Overton is a ''dollars and cents issue,'' Mann said. Tech leaders believe that improving the area around the university would benefit Tech. ''But how much money do you have to pour in and what return do you get?''

There are 104 square miles that make up the city of Lubbock, notes Henson, but the square mile that comprises Overton receives more attention because of its location between two major economic engines of the city Texas Tech and downtown.

''When you have this blight in the middle of the city, it reflects poorly on the community,'' Henson said.

''If someone were to come in with a major proposal that would benefit the area, we would love that. Our department has done a number of general master plans for Overton, but how you get there from here is where the rubber meets the road.''